Remember Me

CHAPTER 1

Insomnia - Daya

Crystal

     I have been staring at the black spot on the carpet of my new room, in this new continent, for the last fifteen minutes. Picking up the phone which is laying besides me on the bed, I type the words I have always been so terrified to Google. But instead of pressing the search button, I press the one above it, deleting every letter. What can I say, I have always been a chicken.
     Like always, I try to reason myself inside my head by saying that I have lived my whole seventeen years of life without facing the truth, what harm can an year do. In the back of my head I know that all this running away is eventually gonna catch up to me especially now that I'm here, in La Santos. The place of my dreams. Literally.
     "Cris, dinner's ready. And don't forget that you have a video session with Dr. Kane." Mom's voice brings me out of my trance and I look up to find her standing at the doorframe of my room in a simple white t-shirt and loose faded blue shorts which she refuses to throw away because in her words 'they make you feel you're floating in the air'. With her long blond hair and green eyes, she looks more like a thirty something older sister than a forty two year old mom of one.
     Getting up from the bed, I go towards the dresser and pick up a hair tie to pull my long and heavy dark hair out of my face and into a high ponytail. My eyes meet my mom's in the mirror. She is still in the exact spot, observing me. "I'll be down in two. You don't have to wait."
     "You have worked up a lovely tan in only a couple of weeks into california. Look at me on the other hand, not a single shade darker," she says with an exaggerated sigh and my lips twitch on their own.
     "Well I'm the one who has had nothing to do but lie around the beach all day. Plus, you must look okay enough to keep dad's interest this long." My mouth stretches into a wide grin which earns me a playful smack on the back of my head and an eye roll.
     I have always had an easy relationship with my parents. Not an I-share-evereything-with-them relationship but an I-can-share-anything-with-them one. My friends back home used to whine all the time about how cool my parents are and wish they were this lucky. And just like that, at the mention of the place I was born and grew up at, my mood sours.

     "So are you excited for the school tomorrow?" Dad is the one who asks this not so smart question while we are doing dishes after dinner. Ofcourse someone had to bring up school. The first day of my senior year without any of my friends. Who wouldn't be excited?
     "Excited isn't the word I'll go for. Let's say I'm neutral." Not. Me not looking forward to tomorrow would be an understatement. Like every teenager, I too had plans for my senior year. But I'm not gonna blame my parents for moving because it's not their fault, they are doing this for my well being. If anything, they should be blaming me for being so fucked up from the day I was born.
     I should have know that my loving, caring, overprotective dad wouldn't just let this topic be. "If the school and people are different than your school back in London and if you are not able to adjust, you know you can tell us, right?" His voice is soft and he turns around to face me so he can see my face. I want to scoff at his naivety but I restrain myself.
     "Dad, the school here would definitely be different but I'm sure I'll do fine". My voice sounds confident and dad seems to buy. He ruffles my hair playfully after wiping it clean with a towel.
     A ping from the reminder I set in the morning catches my attention. "It's nine already and I have a session with Dr. K. So I'll be up in my room, dad. I need to hurry, you know how he is about tardiness." I practically run up to my room, not in the mood of hearing a lecture on my punctuality.
     Dad's faint laughter follows me up until I close my door behind me. He knows Dr. K alright. He, Dr. K and mom graduated from the same med school. Yes, both my parents are doctors. Mom's a pediatrician, dad's a heart surgeon and Dr. K is a psychiatrist.
     "Hello, Doc," I greet as my iPad screen flashes a head full of salt and pepper hair and a forehead.
     "Crystal, how have you been." Dr. K smiles after adjusting his laptop screen so that I can see him properly. He does a quick scan of my face looking for dark circles. But I know he wouldn't find any. I have become good with makeup.
     "I am good. What about you?" I wish I liked these session as much as I like Dr. K. I'm already starting to feel a light headache and we haven't even begun.
     He waves his hand in a fashion which seems to say that what could possibly happen to him and a small laugh escapes me. "What would happen to me? Anyway, how have you been sleeping this past couple of weeks?" At the mention of my sleep, the small hairs on my arm stand at attention and I struggle to not let my true emotion show.
     "Like a baby." There are two people in the world you should probably never lie to. The first person being yourself and the other your shrink. And here I'm, doing what I shouldn't be.
     "So, you're telling me that you didn't have a single dream in the two weeks you have been there? If that's the case, I think the place is affecting you in a positive way. And if things workout as--"
     I cut him off mid sentence. "I'm not saying that I didn't have any dreams. They were there in the form of random images and clips popping here there." Lies after lies slip smoothly through my lips. At this rate, I can easily pursue a career as a professional liar. If it was a thing.
     The truth is that my dreams have only intensified because of this place. They have become more clearer, more longer. Wanna know another truth? They are not just limited to dreams either. I get visions now
     A shudder runs down my spine as I remember what happened three days ago. My mom had given me a list of groceries to buy and because I was not able to find a few things at the near by store, I had gone to another one. Knowing exactly where I'll find another grocery store without looking it up on the internet. That's not even the weirdest part. Before I'd entered the store, I happen to knew that there would a red clock hanging behind the cashing counter and that the number seven would be missing on it. And let me make this clear if it wasn't already I had never been to that store before.
     I see frown lines marking Dr. K's forehead as he processes my words and I know he is trying to find the right words to reassure so I feel less crazy. That trick stopped working years ago.
     " Maybe we are making progress here, Cris. Now tell me about theses random things that pop up in your sleep."
     I take a deep breath before, drum roll please, feeding some more lies. Well half lies. "Just Rose doing some common stuff like studying history when she is sixteen, at movies with her friends when twenty-one, shopping with her five year old son at thirty-two, dancing at someone's wedding with her husband when she is thirty-seven. Nothing major. Same ole, same ole." My attempt at humor is obviously fails.
     I know for some this dream description would not be normal. But for me this is the only normal I've ever known, seeing I've been dreaming these things since I was seven. It used to scare the shit out of my parents, I mean I think it still does. Dreams are supposed to be disoriented, forgettable. Mine are like I'm living another life in my sleep. Or have already lived.
    
     Shutting my locker door, I turn around to face Rex. "You missed the first lecture," I say as I take in his messy blonde hair which are messier then usual.
     "I know but Jenny Davis needed my assistance and I couldn't refuse." His mouth is in a lazy smile and I roll my eyes before opening my locker again and taking out a small plastic bottle. Facing him, I find his outstretched hand. Squeezing two drops of sanitizer on his palm, I watch as he rubs his hands together. I indicate him to also rub the back which earns me a blue eyed glare but he does what I asked.
     "Doesn't Jenny have a boyfriend?" I ask as we make our way to the chemistry class which we share.
     "Yeah. I mean she does hangout with Collins a lot," he answers as if he is not sure. Josh Collins is Jenny's boyfriend and he is also Rex's teammate. If he finds out that his girlfriend cheated on him with Rex, that might create trouble for the team. But this idiot besides me doesn't seem too concerned.
     Rex opens his mouth to say something when he stumbles and lands himself on the floor.
     Laughter bubbles out of me as I watch him getting up from the floor with his face all red and start kicking the piece of pipe which is a manufacturing fault.
     "I. Fucking. Hate. This. Ugly. Piece. Of. Plastic." Each word is delivered with a kick. He is an amazing athlete but that small pipe which emerges from the floor in a triangle shape always manages to trip him at least once a week.
     "This is not funny Rosalie Ivy Rivers." He says my full name and glares at me. Despite me trying against it a giggle escapes my lips.
     "But it is Rexroth Heath Hawks."
     A sly grin starts forming on his face and he wiggles his fingers. "You wanna know what would make you laugh harder, Rose?"
     Oh, no. "Don't you dare tickle me. We are already late."

     My eyes fly open as the alarm on my nightstand goes off. The dream plays over and over again in my head. Did I forget to mention earlier that I am Rose in my dreams? The slight good mood I was in, in my dreams, sorry Rose was in, disappears as I remember what today is gonna be. My first day at La Santos High. The same school from my dreams. And I'm nervous, scared, unsure but I'll be lying if I said that I wasn't a little excited too.